(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in the United States agree with trying terrorism suspects in military tribunals, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. 54 per cent of respondents coincide with this rationale, while 30 per cent think they should face justice in American courts.

In May 2005, a 308-page report by the human rights watchdog Amnesty International criticized the U.S. government for its handling of prisoners in several detention centres, including one at Guantanamo Bay where about 400 "enemy combatants"—most of them from Afghanistan—were being held. Former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have urged the federal administration to close the prison.

In September 2006, the U.S. Congress authorized the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The legislation prevents the United States from resorting to torture in order to get information from terrorist suspects, allows these suspects to be held indefinitely without being charged with a crime, and forbids them from challenging their confinement in U.S. courts.

The 1949 Geneva Convention defines prisoners of war as members of rival armed forces captured during a conflict. Since the start of the war on terrorism in October 2001, there have been contradictory arguments after captured members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban were defined as "unlawful combatants" who were not subject to the Geneva Convention.

In June 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review a case, which asks whether "foreign citizens imprisoned indefinitely" by the U.S. military can challenge their confinement through the civilian court system. A year later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the "non-citizens" suspected of terrorism who are being held in Guantanamo Bay should be allowed to challenge their detentions in the U.S. civilian court system.

The first trial by a military tribunal began earlier this month in Guantanamo Bay. The subject is Salim Hamdan—Osama bin Laden’s former driver—who is accused of helping al-Qaeda.

On Jul. 27, Jonathan Drimmer, a former prosecutor for the U.S. Justice Department, commented on the Hamdan trial, saying, "This is essentially a new legal system, and they are using Hamdan to work out the kinks. (...) It’s a guinea pig trial."

Polling Data

Should suspected terrorists be tried in U.S. courts or in military tribunals?

Source: Rasmussen Reports
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,000 American adults, conducted on Jul. 22, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

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